USS Hancock CV/CVA 19

Presidents Message June 2026

Welcome aboard!

Greetings, fellow shipmates. I hope you are enjoying the beauty of Spring with warmer days and Spring flowers bursting open to show their colors.

My wife, Cheryl, and I recently returned from a 12-day trip to Europe that I think of as a World War II history tour. We traveled with Viking Cruises and began in London at the Churchill War Rooms, where Churchill, Eisenhower, Montgomery, and others planned the defense of England and later the D-Day invasion of France. The site is now a museum, and I highly recommend visiting it if you have the chance.

Our second big visit was to Bletchley Park. Bletchley Park is a twenty-acre old mansion site that was converted at the start of WW-2, into a German code breaking site. At the peak of the war, there were over 9000 people working there including 600 US Army personnel. As a result of the great work of the men and women who worked there, we broke the German Codes and as a result saved thousands of Allied Forces lives. The work done at Bletchley Park led to the development of the computer and artificial intelligence. It is now a museum and well worth visiting.

After visiting London, we took a train to Paris, travelling through the Chunnel. In Paris, we visited the beautifully restored Notre Dame Church, the Louve, and Versailles, the home of many French Kings. Versailles was very big and very opulent.

It looked to me like no cost was spared to make it the most opulent home in the world. Louis the 16th was the last King of France. He and his wife Mary Antwanette were the last King and Queen to live at Versailles. During the French Revolution they met their fate by a public beheading by the guillotine.

After Paris, we took a Viking River Boat down the River Seine to the Normandy Beaches. We learned that the US Forces on the D-Day landings were focused on Omaha and Utah beaches. The British, Canadians/Aussies landed on beaches North of Omaha and Utah. Most of the landing craft and equipment was made in the USA. Some of the landing craft were over 100 feet long. They carried tanks and heavy equipment. The landing craft that carried troops were about 40’ long. We learned that almost all the troops were seasick by the time they reached the Normandy beaches.

The Paratroopers, who landed behind German lines, provided great support to the beach landings. In only one day, D-day, June 6, 1944, we advanced beyond the beaches, above the cliffs, to level ground. I am sure this is the largest beach invasion in history. Although thousands of allied forces lost their lives on D-day, we had the German forces on the retreat for the rest of the war.

My take after visiting Normandy and the thousands of gravesites is one of my great emotions. I tend to be stoic and not let my emotions be shown. I felt very emotional and still do after visiting gravesites of thousands of American and Allied forces. It amplifies in my mind the atrocities of war. It reminds me, in war, there are no winners. The loss and devastation goes to both sides. On a consolation note, the Marshall Plan did considerable good in rebuilding Europe.

Fair Winds and Trailing Seas,

Dan Powell